CREATION DAY(S):Genesis 1:5 - God called the light "day" during one dayGen 1:8 - completion of a second dayGen 1:13 - completion of a third dayGen 1:14 - creation & purpose of the sunGen 1:19 - completion of a fourth dayGen 1:23 - completion of a fifth dayGen 1:31 - completion of the sixth dayGen 2:2 - resting from creation on seventh dayGen 2:3 - God blessed the seventh day to be holyGen 2:4 - in the day of creationIN THE DAYGen 2:17 - in the day that you eat of that treeGen 3:5 - in the day you eat of that tree (alternate view)
The day, after day #7, that the serpent spoke to Eve is not given.

The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset (Leviticus 23:32). It was originally divided into three parts (Psalms 55:17). "The heat of the day" (1 Samuel 11:11; Nehemiah 7:3) was at our nine o'clock, and "the cool of the day" just before sunset (Genesis 3:8). Before the Captivity the Jews divided the night into three watches, (1) from sunset to midnight (Lamentations 2:19); (2) from midnight till the cock-crowing (Judges 7:19); and (3) from the cock-crowing till sunrise (Exodus 14:24). In the New Testament the division of the Greeks and Romans into four watches was adopted (Mark 13:35). (See WATCHES .)

The division of the day by hours is first mentioned in Daniel 3:6,15; 4:19; 5:5. This mode of reckoning was borrowed from the Chaldeans. The reckoning of twelve hours was from sunrise to sunset, and accordingly the hours were of variable length (John 11:9).

The word "day" sometimes signifies an indefinite time (Genesis 2:4; Isaiah 22:5; Hebrews 3:8, etc.). In Job 3:1 it denotes a birthday, and in Isaiah 2:12, Acts 17:31, and 2 Timothy 1:18, the great day of final judgment.

The variable length of the natural day at different seasons led in the very earliest times to the adoption of the civil day (or one revolution of the sun) as a standard of time. The Hebrews reckoned the day from evening to evening, (Leviticus 23:32) deriving it from (Genesis 1:5) "the evening and the morning were the first day." The Jews are supposed, like the modern Arabs, to have adopted from an early period minute specifications of the parts of the natural day. Roughly, indeed, they were content to divide it into "morning, evening and noonday," (Psalms 55:17) but when they wished for greater accuracy they pointed to six unequal parts, each of which was again subdivided. These are held to have been --

1. "the dawn."
2. "Sunrise."
3. "Heat of the day," about 9 o’clock.
4. "The two noons," (Genesis 43:16; 28:29)
5. "The cool (lit. wind ) of the day," before sunset, (Genesis 3:8)

In the New Testament we have allusions to four watches, a division borrowed from the Greeks and Romans. These were --

7. From twilight till 9 o/clock, (Mark 11:11; John 20:19)
8. Midnight, from 9 till 12 o’clock, (Mark 13:35) 3 Macc 5:23.
9. Till daybreak. (John 18:28) The word held to mean "hour" is first found in (Daniel 3:6,15; 5:5) Perhaps the Jews, like the Greeks, learned from the Babylonians the division of the day into twelve parts. In our Lord’s time the division was common. (John 11:9)

This common word has caused some trouble to plain readers, because they have not noticed that the word is used in several different senses in the English Bible. When the different uses of the word are understood the difficulty of interpretation vanishes. We note several different uses of the word:

(1) It sometimes means the time from daylight till dark. This popular meaning is easily discovered by the context, e.g. Genesis 1:5; 8:22, etc. The marked periods of this daytime were morning, noon and night, as with us. See Psalms 55:17. The early hours were sometimes called "the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8). After the exile the day or daytime was divided into twelve hours and the night into twelve (see Matthew 20:1-12; John 11:9; Acts 23:23); 6 a.m. would correspond to the first hour, 9 a.m. to the third; 12 noon to the sixth, etc. The hours were longer during the longer days and shorter during the shorter days, since they always counted 12 hours between sunrise and sunset.

(4) It is used figuratively also in John 9:4, where "while it is day" means "while I have opportunity to work, as daytime is the time for work." In 1 Thess 5:5,8, "sons of the day" means spiritually enlightened ones.